In the story Brigadoon, a mythical Scottish village appears for one day every hundred years. Indiana’s city and town courts may come into existence, or disappear, once every four years.
Ind. Code § 33-35-1-1(a) permits a second or third class city or a town to establish or abolish a city or town court by ordinance every fourth year after 2006. An ordinance by a city or town establishing a court must be adopted not less than one year before the judge’s term will begin. Additionally, under subsection (d) of this section a city or town court in existence on January 1, 1986, may continue in operation until it is abolished by ordinance. When such a court is created or abolished, the city or town is required to give notice of its action to the Division of State Court Administration (Division).
Indiana welcomes two new town courts in 2012: the Town Court of Fishers in Hamilton County and the Town Court of Cumberland in Marion County. We also bid adieu to city courts in Aurora and Charleston, and town courts in North Manchester and Sellersburg on December 31, 2011 and Knightstown on October 31, 2011. The Monon Town Court was abolished effective January 1, 2011. The Alexandria City Court was abolished on December 5, 2011.
What do we do when they’re gone?
When a city or town court is abolished, the policy of both the Division and the State Board of Accounts is that the records of that court should be transferred to the clerk of the circuit court. Any unpaid tickets for cases that had been filed in the abolished court should be paid through the circuit court clerk. The outstanding tickets should be given new case numbers, but if possible to do so without creating conflicting case numbers, only the court identifier in the first group of characters in the case number should be changed. If changing only the court identifier would create conflicting case numbers, then an entirely new case number must be assigned.
Infraction and ordinance violation cases pending when a city or town court is abolished should be assigned to a circuit or superior court in the county that DOES NOT handle infraction and ordinance violation cases under the local caseload allocation plan.
The Division recommends that this procedure is the most straightforward way to number and track any outstanding infraction or ordinance cases from the abolished city or town court, and will reduce the possibility of conflicting case numbers. For example, an unpaid ticket from a town court with a case number of 91I01-1108-IF-000096 would be changed to 91C01-1108-IF-000096.
If it is necessary to transmit an SR 16 to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles under a new circuit or superior court case number to close an FTA or FTP that originated under a city or town court case number, and the FTA/FTP is not closed automatically due to the difference in the Court Case Number, a report will be generated by the BMV for manual review. If the BMV is satisfied that the SR 16 is a match to an existing FTA or FTP suspension, the BMV will manually close the suspension.
Misdemeanor cases that are pending at the time the city or town court is abolished should be assigned to the circuit or superior court(s) that handles misdemeanor cases under the local rule for assignment of criminal cases that is required by Ind. Criminal Rule 2.2.
Civil cases that are pending in a city court at the time the court is abolished should be assigned to a circuit or superior court that handles civil cases. When the case is assigned to a circuit or superior court, the case will retain the original case type that had been assigned to the case in the city court. Even if more than one court handles civil cases under the county’s caseload allocation rule, all of the civil cases transferred from the city court should be assigned to a single court in order to facilitate tracking.
All records, for which the retention periods have not expired under Ind. Administrative Rule 7, if maintained electronically, must be printed out and transferred to the clerk of the circuit court. The Record of Judgments and Orders (Order Book) must be maintained permanently for all case types. Chronological Case Summaries (CCS) for Infraction Cases and Ordinance Violation Cases must be maintained for 10 years after final disposition of the case. The CCS for all other case types must be maintained permanently.